Composer Gregory Buttner captured recordings from the 19th century French Performance Arts Forum in St. Erme, Picardy in 2011, using the house as a sound generator, resonant space and instrument, organizing the recordings into this excursive and exploratory composition.

"I recorded the sounds for this piece in March 2011 at the "Performance Arts Forum" in France. The PAF is housed in a former convent school, which was built at the end of the 19th Century in the village of St. Erme in Picardy. After the convent school and a hospital during World War I, various temporary uses and a long term of vacancy, the PAF was founded in 2006 as a workplace for artists.

During my three-week stay, I kept sneaking through the 6.400 m2 building: From the attic to the basement, from the small private chapel through the various rooms and artists' studios. I examined the old monastery acoustically, recorded sounds and improvised together "with the house".

The role of the house kept moving between sound generator, resonant space and instrument. I recorded breathing wood planks or flickering light switches, explored the different resonant cavities, made metal cabinets resonate or prepared out-of-tune pianos.

From the recorded material I worked out a composition, which, organized in chapters, permeates the house acoustically and connects found sounds, digital processing and experimental performance techniques into a "throbbing"."-Gregory Buttner